Nationwide lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic has caused heavy losses to plywood, panel and decorative laminates industry. Due to the lockdown, all industry operations were completely stopped and government appealed the citizens to stay at home with immediate effect because life is the top priority now. The manufacturing operation at Plywood, MDF, Particle Boards and Laminates factories were shut and government authorities were ordered to assure complete lockdown to save the life of human beings.
The manufacturers from different plywood clusters said that they have a good quantity of timber stock and resin, which would be damaged if it is not processed within a week. The industry people in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, UK, etc, have made a request to the state authorities and have sought permission to run their plants for 2-3 days, wherein they can utilize their timber stocks.
Haryana Plywood Manufacturers Association wrote a letter to state government officials stating that due to ongoing lockdown, the stored logs of Eucalyptus and Poplar, meant for Core Veneer conversion are getting dried up. As these logs loose moisture cracks are developed in the logs and after certain stage such logs become unusable for conversion into veneer. For the fear of wastage of perishable timber, special permission to convert these logs into veneer should be granted. J K Bihani, president – HPMA, informed that some plywood units have got permission to utilize these timbers and peeling of logs has been allowed for 2-3 days.
Similar demands were made by different state manufacturing clusters. Although some states like Kerala and others have reported to have got permission for 2-3 days. Mujeeb Rahman, president - All Kerala Plywood and Boards Manufacturers Association, confirmed that the plywood units located in Kerala have got permission of 2 days to utilize their timber stock and resin.
Decorative Laminates, MDF and Particle Boards industries also reported to suffer huge loss due to resin stocks, which they were unable to utilize.